1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flooring panel or wall panel and the use thereof in a wet room.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During the last few years laminated floors have achieved and increased popularity and on many markets they are beginning to replace parquet floors and wall-to-wall carpets. At the production of laminated floors a decorative thermosetting laminate is first produced. This laminate usually consists of a base layer of paper sheets impregnated with phenol-formaldehyde resin and a decorative surface layer consisting of a decor paper sheet impregnated with melamine-formaldehyde resin. The laminate is produced by pressing the different layers at a high pressure and an increased temperature.
The laminate obtained is then glued to a carrier of particle board for instance or used as such without any carrier and it is then called compact laminate. The laminated panel thus produced is then sawn up to a number of floor boards which are provided with groove and tongue at the long sides and the short sides. Often the floor boards produced have a thickness of about 7 mm , a length of 120 cm and a width of about 20 cm. Thereby they can usually be put on top of an existing flooring material at a renovation. According to another alternative, instead one or more of the above decorative sheets can be laminated directly towards a base sheet of particle board for instance.
At the assemblage of such a flooring glue is normally applied in the groove when the floor boards are assembled. Therefore, it will be difficult to change a damaged board or to remove a whole flooring and for instance install it in another room.
To avoid the above problem efforts have been made to achieve floor boards which can be assembled without glue. One such construction is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,341. There the boards are provided with groove and tongue in the usual way, but here a snap-together system is included in the groove-tongue joint.
These floor boards can be assembled without glue. However, they have the disadvantage that the joints between the boards will be flexible and not rigid. This means that if the surface below the floor boards is not completely even which is usually the case, a gap will be formed between the boards. In these gaps dirt and water can penetrate.